Sat, 29 Mar 2008

Dave and I were helping out with replacing the keyboard on a friend's
computer. Isn't it funny how keyboards never come with cables that
are quite long enough to go from the front of a desk to the back,
down and around to the computer that sits underneath?

This particular desk has a backboard that makes the cable take a
more circuitous path than most, and when we unplugged the old
keyboard, we discovered that it was plugged in using an extension
cord.

And what an extension cord! It's a PS/2 to 5-pin AT plug
adaptor ... connected to an AT to AT extension cable ... connected
to an AT to PS/2 cable on the other end. Each of the three pieces
is yellowed with age, but to three different colors.

Unfortunately the mass spectrometer is on the fritz again so we
weren't able to establish accurate Carbon-14 dates for each of
the three pieces.